It doesn’t matter how hard race series try to equalize the performance between cars, some teams will always do better than others within the boundaries that are placed around them, i.e. the rules. Which means the only way to judge a driver’s true talent is to compare them in equal equipment. It was interesting to see how various teammates in top teams are reacting to each other in both F1 and NASCAR this past weekend.
NASCAR first. There’s little doubt that Rick Hendrick’s organization is the best in the sport, week in and week out. But are we seeing signs that the love-fest between Jeff Gordon and teammate (and one-time protégé) Jimmie Johnson is in danger of cooling off? Both drivers were pretty outspoken after a wheel-banging incident in yesterday’s rain-delayed Texas race, which caused Johnson to pit out of sequence with a flat tire. Both drivers were disappointed with each other, they said, although Johnson really didn’t have much of an ax to grind, as he caused the incident. Despite talk of sorting things out, I wonder if the relationship has broken down irreparably: In the past three years, during which Johnson has won every NASCAR title, Gordon has won just one race—that has to hurt. It’s going to take a firm hand, probably applied by Hendrick himself, to keep the boys in line.
In F1, it’s interesting to see how the McLaren and Mercedes teammates are shaping up against each other. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton appear very evenly matched, with Button’s current advantage in the points race coming down to his ability to make judgment calls on his own, rather than relying on the McLaren team’s brain trust as Hamilton does. (Speaking of the brain trust, how many millions are they making to screw up on a weekly basis?) Hamilton seems to be very stoic about his fortunes relative to Button, perhaps because he hasn’t actually been blown away by his teammate.
Over at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg has done just that, however. In view of the blown-away driver being Michael Schumacher, that’s a bit surprising. Anyone who followed Rosberg in the junior formula series—GP2 and F3 Euroseries—knew he was super quick, in the same league as one-time karting rival Lewis Hamilton. But I think even Schuey is in shock over how quick the younger German is. How many times in Schuey’s career has he been decimated in both qualifying and races by his teammate four times in a row? (The answer is never, at least not since 1992.) He’s already making excuses about not understanding how the intermediate tires work on the new generation of cars, neatly sidestepping the fact that Rosberg and everybody else are also getting used to the changes for 2010, such as driving with a full fuel load and narrower front tires.
In essence, it makes one wonder about how great Schuey is. Despite seven world driver’s titles, the one blot on his career is that he has avoided head-to-head competition within his team with another great driver. In 1992, Martin Brundle kept him honest at Benetton, but Schuey was a rookie and Brundle was much better than his record shows. In 11 years at Ferrari, Schumacher made sure his number two was just that: a driver who performed boring donkey work for him and was there to pick up the pieces if it all went wrong for the team leader. Other multiple title winners such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet, Ayrton Senna, and Alain Prost all had teammates at one time or another who were equally quick. Schumacher, for many years in the best car at Ferrari, shied away from real competition. Now, perhaps, we’re seeing why.
Related posts:
- Tuesday Afternoon Crew Chief: NASCAR Misses the Restrictor-Plate Point
- Tuesday Morning Crew Chief: F1 Knives Get Sharpened
- Tuesday Morning Crew Chief: NASCAR’s Not-So-Great Coverup
